Art speaks from the soul of the artist.
Guardian I draws a direct line from my art to my heart.
In the late 1980’s, before I had seriously accepted my call as an artist, I had an experience which left me shaken. I woke out of a sound sleep to see a 7’ figure, glowing green and wrapped as a mummy, bending over me. To say I screamed is an understatement. I didn’t sleep well the rest of the night. This visit burned into my mind and this figure has appeared occasionally in my artwork since.
I shared it with my friend who happened to be both an Episcopal priest and a Jungian analyst soon after it happened. His explanation shocked me; he said that I had been visited by the Archetype of Creativity. Now here is where you roll your eyes and brand me a crazy woman. It’s okay, I can accept it. The fact of the matter is that I have not been able to shake this vision for one minute since it occurred. I have researched the Archetype of Creativity and have found nothing to corroborate the explanation I received, and yet it’s the only one that actually rings true. It was within the next couple of years of this visit that I found myself returning to college for my BFA.
Until now I have not mentioned this figure to many people at all and it has, as mentioned, sometimes appeared in my work but not in the forefront. A few years ago when I had my first or second iPad it was suggested by a friend that I begin having a conversation with this figure by drawing it. So I did. Hundreds of drawings on my iPad, all of which I filed away in the dark hole of cyberspace. Recently another friend said that it might be time for me to readdress this figure. Thus began the Guardian Series. It is time to go public. This series is drawn directly from the original drawings on my earlier iPad.
I am now bringing some of them into my current iPad and reworking them into compositions that speak from my soul. The stages are varied, but consistent in the fact that once I have a basic composition I will layer and filter and manipulate until the piece sings almost finished to me. Then it is transported to Photoshop where I do final polishing before printing.
The print is not the final image, although it could be. I will then mount the print onto a cradled panel and work over it with cold wax and perhaps oil sticks and other collage materials. The image you see here is the final digital version yet to be mounted and worked with wax.
To see the final image you can come to Fifth Avenue Art Gallery where it will be hung in the exhibit Sleep Walkers from February 27 through March 31. After that you can see it on my website barbaradesrosiers.com. The series will consist of between 9 to 12 images and all will be mounted on 18×24” cradled panels.
Art has been and continues to be the fuel that nourishes my soul. Perhaps you might find some fodder in your night time excursions of the soul also.